Director-General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbagh Singh Sunday said that in an overnight gunfight at Panthachowk, Srinagar, the police “lost its brave, well-trained and experience counter-insurgency cop who had taken part in so many successful anti-militancy operations”.
The DGP also said that the three-bike borne militants had first fired at a joint naka party at Panthachowk yesterday night in a bid to snatch weapons, but, he added, “alert forces foiled their plans forcing them to leave behind the bike and take shelter in a nearby house”.
Talking to reporters in Srinagar on the sidelines of the wreath-laying ceremony of a killed Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of Special Operation Group (SoG) of J-K Police, Babu Ram, the DGP said: “[He] was a brave cop, who was well trained and had been part of anti-militancy operations since long.”
The DGP said that teams of SoG and CRPF acted swiftly and cordoned the area till senior officers of police and CRPF joined them to supervise the operation. “The operation lasted for the entire night. In the initial exchange, one militant was killed and we lost ASI Babu Ram. As the operation progressed, we killed two more militants,” the DGP Singh said.
He said that the three killed militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba and one of them was a commander active for over a year. “We brought the families of two others from the Pampore area who appealed their children to surrender, but they refused and instead fired,” he said.
He said one AK-47 and pistols were recovered from the killed militants. Asked whether the three killed militants were involved in the August 14 Nowgam, Srinagar attack where two cops were killed, the DGP said that police was investigating and nothing can be stated at this juncture. (KNO)
